Stewart: 2010 drivers are the best ever

Jackie Stewart, three-times world champion in the 1960’s and 1970’s, has claimed that the current batch of F1 drivers are “the best ever”. He even went as far as saying that current title holder Sebastian Vettel could be compared to former legends such as Jim Clark, Jack Brabham and Graham Hill.

The 2010 title battle included 5 drivers and 3 teams, and went all the way to the wire in Abu Dhabi. Stewart was very impressed with the racing he saw across the year:

"I think it's the best field ever. Red Bull had a good car this year
but right down to the last race there were four drivers battling for
the championship, and there were five for most of the season really
in contention."
"Up there was a Red Bull, a Ferrari and a McLaren, and a Renault
pushing and shoving, so you cannot ask for much better than that.
It was a long season and it came down to the very last race. It was
close racing too."

Despite enormous changes in Formula 1 over the years, to both the cars and the drivers, Jackie claims that the raw driver instinct remains the same:

"I think the animal is exactly the same. I don't think Sebastian Vettel is
any different from what Jim Clark was, or Graham Hill was, or Jack Brabham
was, or people who have won the world championship more than once."
"These drivers are the same - all the same desire, want, focus, commitment
and God-given talent that has been developed to the highest level."
"So they are not different as individuals, but we have a crop of them just
now and we have got a little closer unification of the quality of the
performance of the cars, so it is going to give us better racing - and I
see 2010 was as good as the late 1960s/early 1970s."

Despite giving particular praise to Vettel, saying that there is “a lot more to come”, he still says that all of this year’s title contenders are hugely talented. He also touted Robert Kubica as a future champion, and noted each driver’s different driving talent:

"Webber is still in there, and Kubica could one day be world champion. You
also have Jenson driving in the smoothest and cleanest way of any driver,
and Lewis is probably the best racer of the whole lot - and the best
equipped is still Alonso. You have such a group of extraordinarily
skilled people."